Zambia’s state police Thursday detained two journalists from Muvi TV and the government owned and PF controlled Times of Zambia for following up the country’s biggest ivory theft scandal.

According to the privately owned Muvi TV, the journalists were released but their equipment including video cameras and voice recorders are confiscated.

This was after the police realized that the television station had captured images of officers brutally torturing one of the two suspects arrested in the investigations.

The theft of the ‘missing ivory’ is linked to some top Patriotic Front officials fundraising for the three by-elections set for July 5 in Livingstone, Chama North and Muchinga constituencies.

Police sources disclose that the investigation will head nowhere as strong links had watered down the pursuit of the actual suspects involved.

The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) recently announced a theft of three tonnes of ivory from its holding office in Chilanga, Lusaka worth about K2 billion.

Later, Lusaka Province police commissioner Charity Katanga disclosed the investigations revealed that over 25 tonnes of government trophies estimated at about K50 billion went missing from the ZAWA storeroom. Since the announcement of the ivory theft – the largest in recent history – police have since apprehended two game scouts in connection with the alleged crime.